Why I Walked Away — and Why I Came Back

Over a decade ago, I walked away from a large RIA I had helped build — not because I lost faith in the mission, but because I was exhausted by the friction and lack of technical innovation.

At the time, I was helping clients of that firm manage portfolios, move money, and serve complex, multi-generational families.

But the day-to-day was defined by brittle workflows, stale data, and a constant game of “connect the dots” across disconnected systems.

I knew there had to be a better way — and frankly, I wanted to go build it. So I stepped away from the advisory space and spent the next nine years building software for startups, top Fortune 500 banks, and large operational based enterprises, helping design modern systems that scaled, integrated, and actually empowered users.

‍When I returned to the RIA world…‍

I was shocked by what hadn’t changed.

Same Friction & Old Logos, Few New Logos

Yes, the branding has evolved. The UI is cleaner. The number of vendors are rising, seemingly focused on the new wave of increased private investments — or as we refer to them in the industry, “alternatives.”

But at the infrastructure level — where it matters most — core processes like moving money across multiple custodians remain as clunky and fragmented as ever.

Data is still stale

Third-party aggregators are inconsistent, delayed, or brittle. Advisors wait hours (or days) for updated data. Custodial feeds arrive in batch. Reporting still relies on PDFs and post-hoc adjustments.

Reconciliation and data entry is still manual

Despite the rise of automation in other industries, reconciliation here is still labor-intensive. Most tools either punt the responsibility or outsource it to high-priced manual services. Meanwhile, advisors and ops teams still find themselves manually entering data into spreadsheets or toggling between disconnected systems just to keep accounts aligned. It’s fragile, error-prone, and expensive.

Tools are still siloed

CRM. Billing. Portfolio management. Reporting. General Ledgers. Custodian Portals. None of them talk well to each other. Each vendor wants to “own the client,” and few embrace true bi-directional, field-level integrations.

This creates operational drag — and the larger or more complex the client, the more painful the burden.

The Illusion of Innovation

A lot of recent tech innovation in wealth management has chased the alternatives and private investment boom — building around fund subscriptions, capital call tracking, and waterfall models.

That growth is real. But let’s be honest:

It still represents a small slice of the day-to-day operational workload.

Most RIA teams are still:

• Moving money between multiple banks, custodians, vendors, and asset managers

• Managing household- and entity-level flows

• Executing portfolio changes across numerous platforms

• Rebalancing across complex ownership structures

• Reconciling positions, transactions and cash activity manually

This is the infrastructure layer. And it’s been left behind.

There Will Never Be One Platform That Does It All

Here’s the hard truth:

There will never be a one-size-fits-all RIA platform. And that’s okay. The RIA and Family Office landscape is simply too nuanced — in client structures, workflows, and philosophies — to be served by a single vendor. But the issue isn't fragmentation itself. The issue is a lack of cooperation between tools.

In the enterprise world, we’ve already solved this. The fastest-growing companies weren’t building “do-it-all” platforms — they were building integration-first ecosystems.

• Stripe doesn’t manage your CRM.

• Slack doesn’t do your accounting.

• Salesforce doesn’t try to be your billing platform. Well...maybe Salesforce does try to do too much...But you get my point.

They each play their role — and connect seamlessly. That mindset is still missing in wealth management tech. And it’s time we changed that.

What We’re Building at Atomic

At Atomic, we’re building what I wish had existed when I was deep in the trenches. We’re not trying to “own the client.” We’re not replacing your CRM or rebalancer.  Instead, we’re building the infrastructure layer that makes the rest of your stack actually work.

Centralized Operations Hub

A unified layer to manage key workflows across money movement, reconciliation, and data sync — in real time, with full visibility.

Bi-Directional Integrations

We integrate with the tools you already use — syncing data instead of duplicating it. No more swivel-chair workflows.

Modern Money Movement Technology

Real-time wires, ACH, and transfers — designed for RIAs and Family Offices, mapped to household structures, with full control and transparency.

We believe RIAs and Family Offices deserve the same level of operational infrastructure that banks and fintechs take for granted.

That’s what we’re here to build.

The Future Is Integration With A Slice of Innovation — Not Invention

This industry doesn’t need another all-in-one portal.

It needs cooperation, standardization, and interoperability.

Let’s build toward a future where:

• Tools specialize and collaborate

• Data flows bidirectionally and in real time

• Advisors focus on strategy, not stitching workflows together

• Ops teams can focus on added services and not manually doing what software should handle.

It’s time to stop accepting friction as the cost of doing business. It’s time to modernize the core.

If you're an RIA or Family Office that feels like your tech stack is holding you back — we'd love to talk. Get in touch with us here.

Richard Zazo
Co-Founder, Atomic Insights
Builder. Operator. Former RIA frustrated into building better infrastructure.